One type of network transaction is Internet commerce. Other applications include voting online, accessing medical records, interacting with the government, etc. A common requirement for all of these applications is a reliable method for authenticating the user in order to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive or important data.
Internet commerce, or e-commerce as it is otherwise known, relates to the buying and selling of products and services by buyers and sellers over the Internet or the transactional exchange of information. The convenience of shopping over the Internet has sparked considerable interest in e-commerce on behalf of both buyers and sellers. Internet sales, or like transactions, have been typically carried out using standard credit or debit cards such as Visa®, MasterCard®, Discover®, American Express®, or the like. However, while widely used for more traditional face-to-face transactions, use of these standard credit or debit cards in connection with e-commerce presents certain difficulties. For example, maintaining buyer confidence and security has become difficult with increased reports of credit card fraud. The resulting apprehension is also fueled by buyer uncertainty of the reputation or integrity of a seller with whom the buyer is dealing. The security of the buyer's credit card information or other personal information (e.g., address, credit card number, phone number, etc.) typically submitted along with a traditional Internet credit card transaction serves to increase the apprehension even more. Additionally, credit card account holders, sellers and financial institutions are concerned about safeguarding against fraudulent or otherwise unauthorized credit card transactions.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a new method for carrying out authenticated credit or debit card transactions in particular, and any transaction requiring authentication in general, over the Internet and in the face-to-face world that overcomes the above-described problems.